Very, very pretty. It's a shame though, I wonder if even 1/5th of games using the engine will actually do anything visually interesting with those tools. I can just sense the greys and browns oozing below the surface, snarling to get out.

Atmos Duality:I've had loads of fun with the prior Unreal Engines. What really impressed me about the U3 Engine is actually its implementation in Borderlands.

I had no idea that you could effectively render cel-graphics (or cel-like 3D extrusions) in U3!

Why wouldn't you? You can do it in the Half-Life engine...

I'll do you one better: The Quake 2 Engine (which the beloved Half-Life engine is built on).With the latest OpenGL updates to the engine, I've seen cel-shaded Quake 2. It looks...interesting to say the least (and contradictory to Quake 2's graphics style).

I was just surprised that Epic even supported cel-shading for their new engine in an age where everyone hates on it openly (I've read a lot of complaints about Cel-shading).Looking at those environment effects and tech (oooh! Material layer composites! I might have to play with that!), it seems clear that straight-up 3D is more popular.

Atmos Duality:I had no idea that you could effectively render cel-graphics (or cel-like 3D extrusions) in U3!

Warsow did it on the Quake 2 engine, which is so old that they made it open source 9 years ago.

Duffeknol:Love the Unreal Engine. For some reason it always works and it always runs smoothly, even on not super high-end NASA computers.

Source Engine has higher performance on even older machines. Oh, and UE3's input latency is terrible, there's a perceptible latency between my control inputs and ingame actions. Why people tolerate multiplayer shooters built on this engine in beyond me.

I'll do you one better: The Quake 2 Engine (which the beloved Half-Life engine is built on).With the latest OpenGL updates to the engine, I've seen cel-shaded Quake 2. It looks...interesting to say the least (and contradictory to Quake 2's graphics style).

Source Engine has higher performance on even older machines. Oh, and UE3's input latency is terrible, there's a perceptible latency between my control inputs and ingame actions. Why people tolerate multiplayer shooters built on this engine in beyond me.

How have you come to this conclusion of a terrible input latency. Is your sensitivty settings even properly configured on your PC/Console?

I play Gears of War 2 just fine like any other TPS/FPS without a 'lag' in my movement, but I am waiting for your evidence of the contrary.

This is nothing, less than you could get from a budget PC the moment this game shipped, so unless your PC is a loaf of bread, it wouldn't be cooked by Crysis. Try playing on the lower graphics settings if you're having problems. Just because you can change options doesn't mean they have to be cranked up without any sane thought about your PCs capabilities.

Now, why I'm bringing this up is because the technology has got way, way cheaper and more cost effective than it was three years back, and because Cryengine 3 is made with consoles in mind, naturally it will be better optimised and it's unreasonable, and that's putting it lightly, to think that Cryengine 3 will cook your PC, given how weak the console hardware is when compared to those of even low-end PCs nowadays.

Of course, you won't be able to play this with all the shaders, deferred lighting and global illumination etc. on maximum if you don't invest in a good PC, but that doesn't mean you won't be able to play it at all.

I get what you're saying, but not really. It does everything the Unreal Engine does only better, now what route developers choose to go - photorealism or.. the other way - is completely up to them. It would be rather weird if the engine was limited to only gritty brown/green colour textures, the NPCs to perfect human proportions and the scenery to an island, wouldn't it?

It's great to see such brilliant technology advancing our industry: incidentally "No - no words. No words to describe it. Poetry! They should've sent a poet. So beautiful. So beautiful... I had no idea." :D

GothmogII:Very, very pretty. It's a shame though, I wonder if even 1/5th of games using the engine will actually do anything visually interesting with those tools. I can just sense the greys and browns oozing below the surface, snarling to get out.

Actually the companies that kind of have "direct access" to this version (Epic and People Can Fly) are making games with this pallete of colors. You can see in Gears of War 3 and Bulletstorm that they also have that yeallowish tone. Grey was so last year, now its yeallow with these two games and other games like Deus Ex lol

This is nothing, less than you could get from a budget PC the moment this game shipped, so unless your PC is a loaf of bread, it wouldn't be cooked by Crysis. Try playing on the lower graphics settings if you're having problems. Just because you can change options doesn't mean they have to be cranked up without any sane thought about your PCs capabilities.

Now, why I'm bringing this up is because the technology has got way, way cheaper and more cost effective than it was three years back, and because Cryengine 3 is made with consoles in mind, naturally it will be better optimised and it's unreasonable, and that's putting it lightly, to think that Cryengine 3 will cook your PC, given how weak the console hardware is when compared to those of even low-end PCs nowadays.

Of course, you won't be able to play this with all the shaders, deferred lighting and global illumination etc. on maximum if you don't invest in a good PC, but that doesn't mean you won't be able to play it at all.

I get what you're saying, but not really. It does everything the Unreal Engine does only better, now what route developers choose to go - photorealism or.. the other way - is completely up to them. It would be rather weird if the engine was limited to only gritty brown/green colour textures, the NPCs to perfect human proportions and the scenery to an island, wouldn't it?

Dont forget that there is a reason why you dont see a lot of games with CryEngine.

I support UE3 since Epic gives a load of support to the indie guys with things like "Make something Unreal" where the winner of the contest wins a license to make a fully commercial game to sell. Tripwire (Red Orchestra and Killing Floor) was born with that contest